Camera IconFariq Aqbal Omar tried to hide 10 packages of pure heroin down his pants at Melbourne airport, but staff were quickly alerted to the rectangular bulges. Credit: File photo

A former Malaysia Airlines flight attendant who smuggled more than 2.5kg of heroin into Melbourne in a “clumsily executed” fashion has been jailed for at least three years.

Cabin crew member Fariq Aqbal Omar, 34, walked through Melbourne Airport with rectangular bulges showing through the pants and vest of his airline uniform in May 2018 — after being paid $500 for the job.

The bulges turned out to be 10 packages of pure heroin, with a street value of more than $3 million.

He cleared Customs after the flight from Kuala Lumpur but was seen on CCTV footage entering a bathroom with his suitcase, subsequently transferring the packages into his luggage.

Aqbal Omar was caught after Australian Border Force noticed his behaviour and requested he and colleagues return from their bus to the baggage area.

When approached by officers and asked what was in his pants, Aqbal Omar said: “I’m not sure, but I think it’s drugs”.

He later said he had been paid $500 to import the packages, which were to be collected from a man at his hotel room.

He said he thought the packages were “shisha” or tobacco.

Aqbal Omar has left a wife and two children home in Malaysia in “hardship”.

“Your motive was the same as is usual in such cases — the expectation of financial gain — although in this case a very small financial gain,” County Court Judge Wendy Wilmoth said, during sentencing on Friday.

“It was clumsily executed and entirely lacking in sophistication.”

She noted the $500 payment would have covered Aqbal Omar’s mortgage for a month back in Malaysia.

Judge Wilmoth added he would have known the packages contained drugs, but not necessarily heroin.

He was sentenced to five years and six months’ imprisonment, and must serve at least three years before he is eligible for parole.

Aqbal Omar has already served 333 days in pre-sentence detention.

Following the sentence, Aqbal Omar’s lawyers said in a statement they sought the lowest sentence possible for the “clumsy” crime.

“People have a view that the penalty in trafficking drugs to Australia is light as compared to countries such as Malaysia and Singapore where it is a death sentence,” lawyers Thomas Mathew and Martin Kozlowski said.

“In the case of our client, (he) was effectively utilised as a mule with minimal payment, had no knowledge of the operation of the syndicate and the offending itself was carried out in a incompetent and clumsy manner.”